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Mochi paws-es to consider his next move on Game for Cats.Jonathan Baskin

“He plays with the iPad all the time. When I’m using it he stares up at me as if I’m holding a big plate of food.” – Brian Tierney on his dog Clipper.

Brian Tierney had read about iPad apps dedicated to pets, but was initially skeptical. Tierney, who lives in SoHo, thought “they sounded kind of ridiculous. Plus, I wasn’t keen on the idea of my dog’s paws all over my iPad!”

But eventually curiosity got the best of him, and he downloaded iSqueek, which features a variety of realistic-looking toys that make different noises, to see if his 7-year-old pit bull/boxer-mix Clipper would be game.

At first the pooch was perplexed, and when Tierney placed Clipper’s paw on the iPad, which let out a squeaking noise, he bolted from the room.

“It’s like what happens when I turn on the vacuum,” says Tierney.

Just when he’d almost given up hope, Clipper found an on-screen toy that made a sound just like one of his favorite off-screen play things. From then on he obsessively pawed the screen to hear it.

“Now he plays with the iPad all the time,” says Tierney. “When I’m using it he stares up at me as if I’m holding a big plate of food.”

And Clipper treats the high-tech device just like any of his old-fashioned toys — he loves to hide it.

“I once spent a solid hour looking for my iPad, only to finally find it when I caught Clipper pulling it out from under the couch.”

Cats are equally charmed by the device. Mary Thigpen and Nick Wolf live in Manhattan with their two kittens, Mochi, an 8-month-old Ragdoll, and Tabi, a 9-month-old Hemingway cat. The couple had noticed that their cats were interested in pretty much everything that they do — especially if it had to do with their iPads.

“If we’re using them they’d come sit in our laps, smell the device, bite at the case and swat at anything that moves on the screen,” says Thigpen.

They figured that their pets would enjoy playing on it, so they downloaded Game for Cats, which features a variety of enticing items to bat around on the screen. The felines’ favorite features a mouse running around on a background that looks like cheese.

“They both crowded around, ready to pounce and swat the screen.”

Initially, Thigpen and Wolf had to fight their felines to use their iPads. But as many tablet users can attest, the initial excitement can fade and the cats’ interest has waned.

“Now, half the time we turn the game on they just sit on it.”

Zahra Meherali lives in Times Square with her 12-year-old mixed breed cats, Q and R2D2. She downloaded a bunch of pet apps the same day she bought her iPad.

Among the games they enjoy are Cat Toys Lite, Pocket Pond and Cat Fishing.

While Q was instantly hooked, it took R2D2 longer to become interested.

“He’s a little confused and seems to think that there’s something going on under the iPad, so he often tips it over to find what’s underneath. He also tries to eat it.”

R2D2 will happily abandon the games when Meherali wants her iPad back, but Q makes it tougher by sitting on top of the tablet. “I physically have to take it away from him,” she says.

Howard, Joe Gushen’s 1 1/2-year-old, short-haired black cat is extremely active. The only thing that can keep the Williamsburg feline entertained for long stretches of time? iPad apps.

His favorite is Cat Toys, specifically a pingpong-like game, which “sends him into a hypnotic trance,” says Gushen’s girlfriend Sarah Spitz. “He loses all sense of his surroundings and becomes fixated.”

Gushen initially had to guide Howard’s paw to the screen, but “he almost immediately made the connection between his actions and the movement of the on-screen ball and was on his own from there.”

He pulls the plug from Howard when he needs to.

“Sometimes I reach for it and realize that Howard’s still playing. I do feel guilty for cutting his game short. But I usually get over it pretty quickly.”